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Country Strong

Synopsis

It doesn't matter where you've been as long as you come back strong.

Soon after the rising young singer-songwriter Beau Williams gets involved with a fallen, emotionally unstable country star Kelly Canter, the pair embark on a career resurrection tour helmed by her husband/manager James and featuring a beauty queen-turned-singer Chiles Stanton. Between concerts, romantic entanglements and old demons threaten to derail them all.

So...my sister urged me to watch this long ago and I finally did. I will probably be thinking twice when she gives me recommendations in the future.

When Country Strong was released the majority immediately thought of it as a Crazy Heart rip-off. Certainly one goal was to try and capitalize on the success of that film to a certain extent, but this would be a terrible film even without the Jeff Bridges Oscar winner. I will say that writer/director Shana Feste has an undeniable appreciation of country music. Her script hints at that. Unfortunately she is more interested in the eye-rolling love quadrangle going on. All of the leads and their romances are dull, predictable, and shallow.

I probably would not have watched Country Strong at all if not for two things: 1) my friend Morgan told me the ending, which I found unexpected based on the movie's advertising campaign; 2) it was free on demand from The Movie Network. But thanks to those factors, I did watch it. I even enjoyed it -- somehow, it managed to overcome my dislike of both Gwyneth Paltrow and country music. Maybe I just like melodramatic movies with sad endings.

I also enjoyed the fact that this is more of an ensemble piece than a star vehicle for Gwyneth. It seemed as though the four principle cast members -- Paltrow as troubled country star Kelly Canter, Tim McGraw as her…

Not a country and western fan, I did nevertheless enjoy this heart-tugging film. Paltrow is believeable as the country star just out of rehab and on the comeback trail. Garrett Hedlund looks like he needs a shower and the new kid on the block has more make-up on than Gene Simmons. Never saw that ending coming though.

You know, this has to be one of my favorite movies. At first it seems like it's going to be really cheesey, but it's actually a bit dark. I'm not a fan of Gwyneth Paltrow as a person, but I sure do like her acting. Her singing is also lovely, but I think the best singers in this movie were Leighton Meester and Garrett Hedlund. Not a big fan of Tim McGraw in this movie. It could have been his character...or I don't know. Anyway, I do really love this movie. I do adore Leighton too! And obviously, Garrett is up there on my crushes. I mean, I may be going through a chad micheal murray phase, but he doesn't beat Garrett!

A very good musical drama, with an excellent performance from Gwyneth Paltrow, with very good songs and a fine supporting cast. While not a milestone film, it definitely keeps you invested and the time passes by quickly.

There is no denying that the story of Country Strong one steeped in cliché. Kelly Canter (Gwyneth Paltrow) is a country music legend whose career went badly off the rails due to alcoholism. Now on the road to recovery, her husband and manager, James (Tim McGraw), prematurely springs her from rehab to set out on a tour that will make or break her career. In tow are a pair of budding young singers; there's Beau (Garrett Hedlund), the rugged rehab attendant with whom Kelly is having an affair, and Chiles (Leighton Meester), who is aiming for the heights of fame by singing generic pop hits. It seems like if the film was focused on the earnest Chiles instead of washed-up…

I guess my main complaint is that I have seen “A Star Is Born,” and this was a tepid version of it, country style. Gwyneth Paltrow as the alcoholic, pill-popping fading star Kelly Canter hardly gets to sing a song from beginning to end. Her husband James played by Tim McGraw is a total dork and (worst of all) he never sings a single note. All the guitar strumming comes from Garrett Hedlund as Beay Hutton, who sings okay but mumbles a lot, and Leighton Meester plays a beauty queen turned wannabe diva who gets stage fright so bad she needs help facing the audience. Unbelievable. And all the cliches about sleeping around on the road… don’t even ask! If you love country music, you might want to give this a pass. Kids on American Idol show more drive and determination to succeed than you’ll see here. Disappointing.